People

MITERS is more than a machine shop! In addition to providing the tools and space needed to work on projects, we also provide a fun community and a wealth of knowledge, thanks in part to our active alumni and staff members. Our member blogroll is on the sidebar to the right; in addition, we have some regulars who are often in the shop, specialize in a variety of topics, and are happy to answer your questions or help with your projects (the list below is by no means comprehensive!)

Alex Hattori: Battlebots/combat robots, mechanical design. Alex has some of the best 3-and-12 pound robots in the country. In addition, he is also the reigning US yo-yo champion for several years in a row.

Bayley Wang: Motors and motor control, power electronics, lasers, imaging, high performance computing, vehicle traction systems, STM32 firmware. Also the guy to talk to if you want to borrow an obscure camera (thermal, high-speed, microscope), or want a picture of your project or product taken.

Dane Kouttron: Robots and automation, batteries and battery management, power electronics, embedded development. Dane worked at A123 systems for several years and is our go-to guy for lithium battery management and safety.

Ethan Perrin: Machining and manufacturing. Ethan is also a part time shop manager at the Edgerton CNC shop in the same building, and is a good person to ask if you are interesting in using the machines there.

Jared DiCarlo: Machining and manufacturing, controls, especially model-predictive control and control of legged robots, high performance computing, embedded programming.

MITERS Alumni/Spinoff Companies

This is by no means comprehensive; included here are recent and successful operations and you might have heard about elsewhere.

Kitty Hawk (Damon Vander Lind ’08): Kitty Hawk works on personal aerial transport (“flying cars”) and has recently received a ton of media attention as one of “Larry Page’s secret flying car projects”. Some really good engineering happens there, and they are always looking for talent!

Adafruit (Limor Fried ’03): Yes, Adafruit is a “MITERS company”, or at least in the sense that Limor frequented MITERS back when she was a student.

Z-Corp (Tim Anderson): Z-Corp was a pioneer in the field of 3D printing and Tim was instrumental to its creation, in addition to being a core MITERS member for several years. The technology lives on with 3D systems and is one of the few full-color 3D printing processes.

In addition, Makani Power (acquired by Google) and Instructables have strong MITERS ties, and a bunch of smaller operations have direct ties to MITERS, including Equals Zero Designs, Coffee Cookie, and oneTesla.